ANDERSON, Ind. —
Even novice mixed martial arts fans will recognize that the Ultimate Fighting Championship is the No. 1 MMA promotion in the United States and on the planet.
What makes businesses better is when there is competition. In the case of MMA in North America, there have been contenders such as the International Fight League, BoDog Fights, Affliction and Elite XC since the explosion in popularity of MMA in 2005 with the introduction of the UFC’s reality show “The Ultimate Fighter.”
Like a host of other promotions that have come and gone, the Bellator Fighting Championships would like to be the best in the business. What the Chicago-based promotion wants to avoid are the costly mistakes that caused so many MMA organizations in the last decade to go by the wayside.
Bellator chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney wants to see his promotion be one of the best in the world when it comes to MMA. The tough part is balancing how the promotion has to grow versus how anyone involved with Bellator wants it to grow, i.e. at the speed of light.
“I tell people all the time this is a marathon not a sprint. There will never be a time in Bellator – past, present or future — where we’re not growing; where we sit back and say ‘we’ve made it,’” Rebney said in a phone interview. “It’s about laying down those bricks. It’s about connectivity online with social media. You have to build up your fighters and your fan base. You have to buy advertising and pound the pavement. You have to make people want to buy tickets and tune in to a great TV show.”
Bellator has been airing cards on Viacom property MTV2 since 2008. In December of 2010, the promotion signed a three-year extension with the channel, which is already on the Viacom umbrella.
“In the space of four years, we’ve gone from being the No. 5 promotion to the undisputed No. 2,” Rebney said. “We’re looking forward to this partnership with Viacom to move to the Spike network, who wrote the book on television programming for MMA.”
Bellator has been promoting MMA fights for four years. The first televised cards aired on ESPN Deportes. Bellator has aired fights on MTV2 for two years, the next coming March 9 in Hammond (Indiana) for Bellator 60,
The Season 6 tournaments will start with the Friday, March 9 show at The Venue at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond to be aired on MTV2 at 8 p.m. In the main event, featherweight title holder Joe Warren will defend against Pat Curran. Curran who won the Season 5 featherweight tourney to earn his shot at Warren’s championship.
The featherweight four quarterfinal fights will see Sandro face Roberto Vargas, Ronnie Mann take on Wagnney Fabiano, Alexandre Bezerra meet Genair
da Silva and Daniel Straus versus Jeremy Spoon.
Also on the undercard will be Indianapolis-based fighters and UFC veterans Sean McCorkle and Shamar Bailey. McCorkle will face Richard White in a heavyweight bout. Bailey will take on Josh Shockely, of Hobart, in a lightweight contest.
The preliminaries for the March 9 card is scheduled to be stream live over the internet on Spike.com.
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Bellator Fighting Championships chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney Bellator Fighting Championships
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Bellator hopes to push UFC
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